Amazon’s Alexa, Cortana and Siri all share the same trait- they are designed to be female. Although the reason is unclear, an agreed upon hypothesis is that female voices are received better by the human ear. Furthermore, designing a robot that is considered “attractive” leads to greater consumer satisfaction. Lifelike female robots with warm skin and anatomically correct features are already a popular commodity in Japan, providing companionship to the lonely owners who can afford them.

Video games use a specific branch of AI.

Expert systems is a type of artificial intelligence that is designed to mimic human behavior. Weapon selection and interaction with video game bots illustrates Expert Systems in action. AI is also capable of learning the rules of simple video games on its own. DeepMind, an AI firm, dropped their AI creations in games like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Pong. The AI then began to play without assistance.

The Matrix may become a reality.

Researchers at Google claim that humans will eventually be able to upload their brains to a digital storage device and transfer their conscious from one device to another. This would essentially make us digitally immortal super humans capable of vast intelligence and speed.

Governments are already beginning to address the concept of robot rights.

A new report drafted by the European Union provides an outline of rules and regulations to govern future AI. The report also includes the establishment of “electronic personhood” which would guarantee AI its own list of rights and responsibilities. These rights even include the ability for a robot to participate in a court of law. The report was well received, gaining a 17-2 vote in the European parliament.

Stephen Hawking is unsure if AI development will help or destroy the human race.

In a speech given at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Stephen Hawking provided a word of caution to the attendees. “I believe there is no deep difference between what can be achieved by a biological brain and what can be achieved by a computer. It therefore follows that computers can, in theory, emulate human intelligence and exceed it,” the scientist stated. In a blunt conclusion, Hawking stated that “in short, the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.”

There’s no doubt about it – the digital revolution has begun. If that statement surprises you, you are not alone. Although it is occurring at an increasingly rapid pace, there are still many people and areas that the revolution has not reached, especially in the healthcare section.. Here is a major reasons why -technology.

Technology

Health data is broken down into centralized organizational silos. This sounds great in theory but the problem lies in the exchange of individual health records. Most of the time spent on individual records is the actual process of trading them between silos. In order for the exchange of health data to become useful it must:

be normalized into a more uniform method

be collecting from every source possible

breaking down the obtained data with distinctive patient/provider identifiers

How is this connected to Artificial Intelligence?

If the three points mentioned above were to be successfully actualized, this means the data would be aggregated and doing such would eliminate much of the time wasted when exchanging data. Aggregated data would eradicate the need for data translation and data bridges; instead it would connect everyone to a central standard programming. It would also be used as the foundation for Artificial Intelligence (AI).

A new breed of apps can be developed to assist useful recommendations provided by AI. Such aps will be simple to understand, use, and will be connected to the aggregated data powered by the AI analytics engines.

The ability to connect virtual reality technology to smartphone devices has unsurprisingly made the trend more popular than ever. For the most part, virtual reality is used by the general public for entertainment purposes by way of video game play. However, an increasing number of researchers and physicians believe virtual reality can have therapeutic uses as well. In fact, virtual reality uses in the healthcare market has grown from $525 million in 2012 to $976 million in 2017.

How is virtual reality is currently making an impact on the healthcare industry? Here are the top potential uses for virtual reality technology in healthcare:

PTSD

PTSD, also referred to Post-traumatic stress disorder, is one of the most prevalent mental health conditions in the United States and may very well be one of the most difficult conditions to treat. This disorder has become more widely known since 69,000 new cases were reported in 2013 from diagnosed Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Research also shows one in three people who experience any type of traumatic experience will experience PTSD. Unknown to many, PTSD disorders can be inactive for many years and be triggered by any event that makes the individual with the condition remember their traumatic experience.

How can virtual reality help? Virtual reality can assist those who suffer from PTSD by placing them in pleasant environments and regulate the stimulus provided to them.

Fitness

It’s no secret that much of the U.S. population is becoming more fitness conscious. There has been a significant increase in fitness apps and devices and by the looks of it, virtual reality will have a huge impact as well. More and more people are researching and purchasing equipment that will virtually transport them to the destination of their choice for their workouts. Anyone who has ever imagined taking a jog on the beach or doing yoga in the rain forest would be better now have the ability to do so.

Quit smoking

For years, we have seen a surplus in ads that detail how bad smoking is for our planet and our individual health. While there have been products on the market such as nicotine gums, patches, and e-cigarettes virtual reality is seems to be a promising alternative.

Through the use of biofeedback, mindfulness, and psychological techniques – virtual reality can connect current smokers with non-smokers to help them bring an end to their smoking habits.

Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

If you’re a gamer, know a gamer, or have children who are gamers you must know of the motion sensory additive to the popular xbox 360 and xbox one devices known as the Microsoft Kinect. The original purpose of the Kinect was to allow players to interact and control gameplay without using controllers and instead rely on spoken commands and gestures. Virtual reality can transcend gameplay and help those in need of physical therapy and rehabilitation by helping them achieve their therapeutic goals without even knowing they are participating in physical therapy.

The goal of this unit, in conjunction with its larger department, is to basically maintain a certain level of consistency when it comes to applying effective health policies. The functions of this digital health unit range has two main areas which are outlined below:

Creating software and developing assistance programs for software as medical devices or other digital health technologies before they reach the public.

In order to diversify the efficiency throughout this new centralized digital health unit, the FDA has confirmed that the agency will be hiring experts from the private sector instead of bringing in talent internally.

“The world of digital health has a lot of expertise that we need to supplement our organization with,” Bakul Patel, associate director of digital health in the FDA’s CDRH states. “If we had to do it all internally, then it would defeat the purpose.”

However, it will be quite difficult to hire professionals with particular expertise in complex areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing and cybersecurity. While the salaries for these types of positions are quite high, Patel is hesitant with regard to hiring fresh, young talent right of college.

In other words, retention an area of concern within the FDA recruitment process He is aware that this type of position at the FDA is an experience booster, making these young professionals even more marketable, leading them to leave within a few years for another opportunity.

In this competitive market, it is possible that the above factors will make it hard for even new centralized health units to retain talent when there are a wide spectrum of incoming opportunities in the private and public sectors.

With blood tests becoming more common to detect breast cancer, it is no surprise that this type of test also has the potential of detecting the return of lung cancer after the disease has been removed from the body. Recently, researchers have reported that there is a good chance that unstable chromosomes increase the overall risk that the lung cancer will return.

A study conducted by the Cancer Research UK-funded TRACERx tracked the medical experiences of around one hundred patients through their diagnosis, lengthy surgeries and the post-surgery phase. The researchers paid close attention to the post-surgery phase as this could lead to either full recovery or a possible relapse with the return of cancer.

One highly important discovery from this study showed that patients with a high number of unstable chromosomes in their system had a 4x more chance of relapsing. Patients with a high number of unstable chromosomes unfortunately also had a stronger chance of dying within two years.

It is also important to note that genetically diverse tumors could become increasingly resistant to treatment in patients.

Mariam Jamal-Hanjani, the study’s lead author sheds light on why this study specifically is really important when it comes to guiding patients towards the end goal of beating lung cancer.” Jamal-Hanjani states that “Determining the relationship between diversity within tumors and patient survival is one of the primary goals of TRACERx, so to find evidence for this so early on in the study is really encouraging.

“We’ve also identified what causes lung cancer to advance, providing us with insight into the biological processes that shape the evolution of the disease,” Jamal-Hanjani also stated.

There is no question that the merging of health care and technology continues to shape what it means to be a patient in this market. With national health expenditures, accounting for more around 18% of the country’s GDP in 2015, new healthcare focused technology can alleviate some of the fiscal burden of chronic diseases.The rise of telemedicineAlong with offering everyone additional accessibility, telemedicine saves time/money while also providing healthcare to patients in remote areas that may or may not have a healthcare facility close by. Basically, patients can now speak with a therapist, physician or any other medical professional on their smartphone to update prescriptions or ask a question about their latest visit. Since telemedicine lacks facetime, access to emotional therapy is through a smartphone is more cost-efficient than meeting with a healthcare professional in person. Cloud AccessCloud technology has also changed the way in which we interact with the health care system and more importantly, how patient specific medical records are stored. In the past few years, doctors have used their smartphones for day to day functions such as retrieving drug info, and patients are able to access test results with minimal wait time. As a result of this, there has been a new shift in focusing on data related protection when it comes to patients’ private medical records. WearablesFor many, the days of heading to your local grocery store and taking your blood pressure are long gone. Devices can perform DIY blood tests, or serve as a thermometer, which help patients regulate their day to day health without leaving their homes. With some tools that have automation, individuals can measure their weight, pulse etc. and enter this information into their smartphones and transmit to medical professionals in minutes. If these details are submitted on a regular basis, this in turn can help predict one’s risk for heart disease and other illnesses that previously have not been so easily monitored and shared between both parties.

With regard to some patients who have a low risk of lung cancer during its early stages, a recent study shows that researchers have uncovered a less invasive and more cost-efficient way to screen at risk patients. Furthermore, this research suggests that a nasal swab could accurately detect lung cancer.

According to some findings published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a research team from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) may have found a new way to discern whether lung lesions are malignant.

The key component is DNA-based “biomarkers” in the nasal passages which actually indicate whether a lung lesion is cancerous or not.

Marc Lenburg, co-author of the study states that “Nasal gene expression [production] contains information about the presence of cancer.” He believes the nasal swab “might aid in lung cancer detection.”

Moreover, the new study involved patients who were both current and former smokers across 28 different medical centers in North America and Europe. Through the nasal swab test, the Boston research team identified a distinct pattern of 30 genes that showed different activity from patients who have lung cancer from those who don’t.

One important outcome of this test was the ability to see cancer-associated gene expressions that were altered similarly through the two airway sites. This allowed to come to the conclusion that the brushings could be a biomarker or a scientific indicator of lung cancer.

After carefully evaluating 550 nasal samples, the research team concluded that they could actually detect lung cancer-associated genetic changes in both nose and lung cell samples. This in turn could help predict or detect if the patient had lung cancer.

While the nasal swab needs to undergo additional testing, there is no doubt that the nasal test has the potential of becoming a mass testing tool for patients across the country and even globally.

Last year, we saw a lot of disruption of the healthcare industry that improved the patient experience for the better. In 2017, we can expect a continuation of this as the industry shifts to a more value-based model. Many of the new technological advances used in hospitals have brought on a greater emphasis on preventative medicine, reduced costs and patient-centered and patient-powered care. Other aspects that have been making an impact are telemedicine, wearable remote monitoring and Electronic Health Records. Here are a few changes that we can expect to see in 2017:

1) Clinical Trials

Medical devices can be used to monitor the patients who are participants in clinical trials for new drugs and other therapies. Pharmaceutical companies rarely have the ability to monitor trial participants on a 24-hour basis. If electronic data can be sent via devices around the clock, researchers will be able to come to conclusions much sooner. According to a 2016 survey by digital device enterprise Validic, devices are being used more and more for clinical trial data collection. When data is generated by patients and streamed directly to clinical trial managers in real time, the information is much more accurate than it would be if patients visited periodically and relied on memories.

2) Digital Monitoring

Wearables are able to monitor aspects of a patient’s health like blood pressure, blood sugar levels, weight, mediation and levels of activity. When a patient uses any kind of wearable, whether it is a small device or a patch, a steady stream of data can be sent to healthcare providers and used to evaluate a patient. Recent research shows that in 2015, the medical device industry market totalled approximately $5.1 billion, and it will probably triple by 2020 and more healthcare providers will begin to take the concept on board.

3) Consumer Use of Digital Health

Consumers are gaining awareness of the need to monitor their own health to prevent future health conditions. Digital technology is being used in a much more abundant way than it was before. In 2016, a venture that invests in health-related startups called Rock Health released its annual survey about summer trends in healthcare. The survey found that 56 percent of respondents were utilizing at least three types of digital health, a huge increase from 19 percent in 2015.

Only 20 percent of respondents said they did not use any digital health technology. Of the respondents, 10 percent of them were considered avid users of digital health technologies such as telemedicine, wearables, electronic access to medical records and more. Unsurprisingly, millennials dominate the digital health market. In a constantly changing world, technology is truly altering the healthcare market for the better. Advances in digital healthcare changing the world, and we can expect this to continue in 2017.

On January 17, 2017, the Stanford University School of Medicine announced the launch of the Center for Digital Health, which is dedicated to supporting collaborations between Stanford’s faculty and tech companies in Silicon Valley. These collaborations will have the potential to result in the development, testing and implementation of new digital health tools. The Center for Digital Health works to advance the field of digital health by conducting clinical research, promoting partnership and spreading education to the next generation.

Stanford has been working to improve patient care through precision health, and Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine, feels that the Center for Digital Health will be able to further this mission. Because Stanford Medicine’s faculty are equipped with biomedical expertise and are located in Silicon Valley, Stanford Medicine has immense potential to become a leader in digital health. The Center for Digital Health uses the most advanced digital tools and technologies to tailor care to individual patients. For this reason, Minor states, the choice to open the Center aligns with the mission of the biomedical revolution in precision health at Stanford.

According to Sumbul Desai, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine and executive director of the center, the idea for the center came from the need to provide guidance and support to faculty who were being contacted by tech companies and startups with offers to collaborate. Stanford’s faculty wanted to give the faculty more opportunities by providing the resources and infrastructure necessary for these relationships to develop. The center will be able to help connect faculty with people in the tech industry, and vice versa.

There are currently a lot of digital health startups in existence. It’s important that doctors, hospitals, patients, insurers, investors and regulators are aware of which solutions will work. Mintu Turakhia, MD, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine and senior director of research and innovation at the center, stated that high-quality evidence is necessary for making informed decisions.

He leads efforts to advance research in digital health. This can involve anything from implementation studies to technology assessments to multicenter trials. Turakhia is also the principal investigator for five trials in the field of digital health. Of these trials, the largest one is a randomized trial to test whether digital interventions combined with health coaches improve adherence to medication in people with atrial fibrillation. The trial involves 400 patients at 25 sites. This is an important trial since atrial fibrillation affects 4 million U.S. adults.

Turakhia says that even after evidence has been found, there are a number of questions that need to be answered. The faculty members need to figure out the best way to make new digital tools a part of health care. They need to determine if the new advances will actually make patient care better and whether they are worth the costs.

Lauren Cheung, MD, BMA, clinical assistant professor of medicine and senior director of strategy and operations for the center stated that there is not much evidence that can determine how to incorporate digital tools into practice. This is where Stanford’s faculty members come in. With their experience they can help design and implement digital health tools.

Training will be provided to physician in digital health medicine through the center’s fellowships, conferences, internship opportunities and traditional classroom material. Educational programs will also be offered to industry members.

It is clear that the center has the power to truly change the way medicine and tech collide. With the launching of this new center, Stanford will be able to make strides in digital health, which will have a large positive impact on patient care.

Earlier last month, operating-oriented private equity firm Roundtable Healthcare Partners announced some pretty big news. The firm, which focuses exclusively on the healthcare industry, has made a majority investment in Revision Skincare LLC and Goodier Cosmetics LLC. Revision works to market physician direct dispensed products that are sold exclusively through specialists such as dermatologists and plastic surgeons. Goodier develops and manufactures niche topical personal care products, as well as over-the-counter pharmaceutical products for Revision and other third parties.

The owners and founders of Revision-Goodier, John and Rob Muller, will continue to serve in their respective current roles as CEO and COO, in addition to continuing their roles as members of the Board. They will also keep a significant ownership stake in the company.

RoundTable’s Senior Operating Partner, Pierre Fréchette, states that RoundTable is excited to partner with John and Rob Mullers. He went on to say that the Mullers have created a large presence in the physical direct dispense market and have worked hard to serve skincare professionals. Fréchette stated that RoundTable looks forward to using internal product development and product acquisitions to expand Revision’s product portfolio. He hopes this can be achieved for both over-the-counter skin care and products sold exclusively via the professional channel.

David Koo, Senior Partner at RoundTable, stated that Revision-Goodier is RoundTable’s third platform investment in the dermatology market within the past five years. RoundTable is familiar with the organizations that manufacture and develop topical products. This knowledge base will allow RoundTable to play a key role in facilitating the growth of Goodier and its clients.

John Muller stated that RoundTable is the ideal partner company for Revision-Goodier. He feels that this partnership will help Revision-Goodier continue its growth trajectory due to RoundTable’s extensive expereince in the pharmaceutical marketplace of dermatology.

Rob Muller is very thankful to Revision-Goodier’s employees for assisting in the development of a strategically valuable platform company. He shares John Muller’s sentiments of excitement about the partnership with RoundTable.

RoundTable chooses to partner with healthcare companies that fall within the experience and expertise of the firm’s principals of operation and transaction. RoundTable has made two investments from its $650 million Fund IV before investing in Revision-Goodier. In order to finance further growth opportunities for Revision-Goodier, RoundTable aided the completion of new senior credit facilities.

This partnership will be exciting for everyone involved. Revision-Goodier is a top notch skin care company, and the partnership it has made with RoundTable can only increase its success.